Katie Menante Anderson
INTRODUCTIONHuman beings, no matter what race or ethnicity or place or time, will not tolerate injustice forever. Webster’s defines injustice as a “violation of the right or of the rights of another” (Merriam-Webster, 1990). The history of the United States is filled with such violations. From the early challenges to religious freedom in Massachusetts to the broken treaties and systematic removal of Native Americans from their land to the abominable practice of slavery in the United States, our nation’s reality rarely measures up to the principles and ideals penned by the founding fathers in the Declaration of Independence and The Bill of Rights. The story for Mexican-Americans is no different. The annexations of Texas in 1845 and the Mexican Cession in 1848 make evident the bulldozing efforts of the dominant Anglo culture to fulfill its “Manifest Destiny,” in spite its own declarations that “all men are created equal” and that the United States is a nation that believes in the personal freedoms of life, speech, property and religion. Confronted by the reality of Manifest Destiny and annexation, the new Mexican-Americans resisted the unjust domination of the U.S. Government and its citizens and challenged the broken promises of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Social banditry, the secret and nocturnal resistance of Las Gorras Blancas and their involvement in the newspaper La Voz del Pueblo and political party Partido del Pueblo Unido were different expressions of the Mexican response to the injustices they experienced by the United States and its Anglo citizens. BACKGROUND

In the spring of 1848, the congresses of the United States and Mexico ratified the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo thereby ending the Mexican- American War and finally settling the two nations’ tenuous border dispute over Texas. According to the terms of the treaty, Mexico ceded over half of its territory (the most fertile and resource rich) to a United States of America anxious to fulfill the mandate of Manifest Destiny. Save a small portion of land just west of Texas (which later fell under US control via the Gadsden Purchase), the United States reached its present day continental size by gaining the Greater Southwest, namely all or parts of present day California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado and Utah. Mexico in return was paid fifteen million dollars (Lopez y Rivas, 1979, p.12). When explained from the perspective of the dominant Anglo American culture, Manifest Destiny is a sound doctrine replete with all that’s good about 19th -Century America. In his article, New Mexico Resistance to U.S Occupation, Carlos Herrera explains, The 1800’s proved an age when citizens of the U.S regarded themselves the custodians of democracy in all the Americas. In their eyes and minds, Americans regarded it their duty to spread the ideals of the Declaration of Independence, and of their Constitution, from coast to coast. As a nation, The United States considered this goal its manifest destiny, a principle adopted by the citizenry to justify the territorial conquest of Mexico’s northern frontier. Political, economic, and military victories achieved against Mexico came to be identified and associated with the supposed superiority of U.S. society and its institutions. (2000: p.25)

Expanding freedom and democracy and the territory of the United States was perceived to be a right, even righteous, endeavor. However, these same ideas and experiences understood from a Mexican perspective were loaded with racial, economic, political and religious superiority on the part of the United States and did nothing to support the ideals of the Declaration or the Constitution. In theory, it sounded good but in practice, Manifest Destiny was hypocritical to the basic ideals of American democracy. The Anglo American perspective also teaches that Mexico...

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The treaty of GuadalupeHidalgo
The Treaty of GuadalupeHidalgo is an agreement, signed on February 2, 1848, at GuadalupeHidalgo, which is a city north from the capital of Mexico, between the United States and Mexico that marked the end of the Mexican War. With the defeat of the troops and the fall of the Mexican capital on September 1847, the Mexican government surrendered to the United States and wanted negotiations between the United States to end the war. Signing the treaty was only the beginning of the process because it still had to be approved by the congresses of both the United States and Mexico. No one could tell how the Polk administration would receive a treaty negotiated by an unofficial agent, and could they know the goods and the negative things of the Mexican political scene for the next few months. In both the U.S. and Mexican governments there was opposition to the treaty. In the United States, the northern abolitionists opposed the annexation of Mexican territory. In the Mexican congress, a sizable minority was in favor of continuing the fight. Both countries ratified the document. The Treaty of GuadalupeHidalgo marked the end of the war.
The United States Senate ratified the treaty on May...

...Treaty of GuadalupeHidalgo
Articles V, VIII, IX and X
The Treaty of GuadalupeHidalgo ended the U.S.-Mexican War. Signed on February 2, 1848, it is the oldest treaty still in force between the United States and Mexico. As a result of the treaty, the United States acquired more than 500,000 square miles of valuable territory and emerged as a world power in the late nineteenth century.
Beyond territorial gains and losses, the treaty has been important in shaping the international and domestic histories of both Mexico and the United States. During the U.S.-Mexican War, U.S. leaders assumed an attitude of moral superiority in their negotiations of the treaty. They viewed the forcible incorporation of almost one-half of Mexico's national territory as an event foreordained by providence, fulfilling Manifest Destiny to spread the benefits of U.S. democracy to the lesser peoples of the continent. Because of its military victory the United States virtually dictated the terms of settlement. The treaty established a pattern of political and military inequality between the two countries, and this lopsided relationship has stalked Mexican-U.S. relations ever since.
Signing the treaty was only the beginning of the process; it still had to be approved by the congresses of both the United...

...consequences were monumentally disastrous. When the treaty ending the war was signed, there were perhaps eighty thousand Mexican residents in the former Mexican territories that became the Southwestern United States. In the years that followed the war they suffered a massive loss of land and political influence.
In early 1848, following the United States capture and occupation of Mexico City, negotiations drew up a preliminary draft of the treaty. After revision by the Senate, the Treaty of GuadalupeHidalgo, signed in the Villa de Guadalupe across from the shrine dedicateed to Mexico's patron saint, the Virgin of Guadalupe, was ratified by both governments later that year. In return for the northern third of Mexico, the United States agreed to pay $15 million and to assume up to $3.25 million in claims by its citizens against the Mexican government. The treaty guaranteeded Mexicans newly absorbed into the United States and to their descendants certain political rights, including land rights.
In 1853, the United States purchased a thirty thousand square mile strip of land in southern Arizona and New Mexico for $10 million. Acquired for a southern transcontinental railroad route, the Gadsden Purchase had profound consequences for the Mexicans who resided in the region. Two thousand Mexicans from the conquered lands who had moved to northern Mexico suddenly...

...The Treaty of GuadalupeHidalgo, which came into effect on 2 February 1848, ended the Mexican-American war and formally resolved territorial disputes resulting from that conflict. The treaty required the U.S. government to pay the Mexican government $15 million dollars, this in return for an expanse of territory that later became the states of Arizona, New Mexico, and parts of Utah, Nevada, and Colorado. I intend to argue that thetreaty benefitted the people who inhabited, and later came to inhabit, that territory. I also propose that, as a result of the transfer of territory from a dictatorial regime to one that was based on democratic principles, both Mexico and the United States ultimately benefitted in several ways.
The Treaty of GuadalupeHidalgo was not easily negotiated, for the disputes which underlay it went back to the question of Texas. Following the successful revolt of the Texans, including Mexicans who lived north of the Rio Grande, against the dictator Santa Ana, the Mexican government did not reconcile itself to the loss of this vast territory. Instead, it plotted and planned to recover Texas, by military force if necessary. The accession of Texas to the Union in 2 March 1845 poisoned relations between the United States and Mexico and set the stage for the Mexican-American War.
The American President, James K. Polk, wanted to resolve these and...

...Bernardo Couto, and Don Miguel Atistain,
I am an extremely proud Mexican citizen living in a New Mexican territory. I have been given land by the King of Spain and have recently received the details of the Treaty of GuadalupeHidalgo. The treaty portrays insincerity and presents us with an unjustifiable position. The result of the treaty would put us in an even worse situation than we are in now. My points should be recognized because I am very knowledgeable about the treaty, my family has been living in the territory of New Mexico for many generations, I am a strong follower of God, and I know what is best for Mexico. We, as the country of Mexico, can’t sign the Treaty of GuadalupeHidalgo as we will lose much of our land for a small cost, we will not be given U.S. citizenship immediately, and our land grants will not be honored which will lead to an abominable future for the country of Mexico.
Mexico would be giving up an immense amount of land by signing the treaty. The treaty states, “The boundary line between the two republics shall…” The United States is telling us what land to give up, instead of giving us a choice. Although the U.S. is willing to pay us $15 million for some of our land and pay for war-related damages, this amount of money is not large enough. The treaty proposes we give up our...

...Treaty of GuadalupeHidalgo
The treaty of GuadalupeHidalgo is a really well know history that occur here in California, for some people it well be Mexico because we must all know that years ago this was not California it was Mexico. With the treaty this became California but I believe that we should all be informed of where we live and where we grow up and it's history, I believe this because we all should have some knowledge of things that we consider important to us. The treaty of GuadalupeHidalgo was something really important to Mexico and the United States because the treaty was an option for a peaceful ending of the war. The treaty of GuadalupeHidalgo ended the war on February 2, 1848, the treaty was the one that shaped the history of Mexico and United States.
In the treaty of GuadalupeHidalgo the is 18 articles and the 1 article says “There shall be firm and universal peace between the United States of America and the Mexican Republic, and between their respective countries, territories, cities, towns, and people, without exception of places or persons.” They (the United States and Mexico) did end the war in peace but their counties, territories, cities, towns, and people didn't have the peace they needed. The...

...﻿Guadalupe Paper
Occurring only ten years after the final conquest in Mexico, the Lady of Guadalupe event served as a crucial point in shaping the newly contacted Spanish and native cultures. Spanish friars initially tried to force their religion upon the natives. They found the native practices of human sacrifice appalling and felt it was their duty to spread the Christian gospel to all those they considered unenlightened. Since the event in 1531 the story ofGuadalupe has helped to harmonize the conflict between the two. To this day the significance of Guadalupe is still deeply embedded within Latin American spirituality. Virgilio Elizondo states in Guadalupe: Mother of the New Creation that the idea of Guadalupe comprises an “American Gospel” (p. 134). The apparition Juan Diego experienced with Guadalupe, the Mother of God, encompasses Spanish Catholic elements, Nahua elements, and Mestizo elements that contributed to what Pope John Paul II acclaimed as “an impressive example of a perfectly inculturated evangelization” of the gospel.
At a time when both natives and Spanish foreigners experienced an extreme culture shock of clashing beliefs, Guadalupe created a religious common ground for them to share. The term “American Gospel” used by Elizondo to describe the event is drawn from the combination of the Christian gospel and the traditions rooted in the...

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Guadalupe
Just to remark that the teacher Nick Vorvolakos helped me develop the essay, he corrected it and also recommends me books and articles.
Mostly referred as the Virgin of Guadalupe, Guadalupe is one of the most celebrated Christian representations across the world. However, some evangelicals’ especially in North America often misunderstands her as a union of different beliefs and idolatrous image. In Latin America especially Mexico, people frequently elevate her to the status of deity. Besides, they recognize her as the Patron Saint of America. Guadalupe just like Jeanne of Arc, Cleopatra, and Betsy Ross has become mythologized and useful as a cultural and religious symbol. Although her historical role remains shrouded in principles, Guadalupe has a strong historical and religious significance in some parts of the world especially to people of Latin America (Poole 12). Evangelicals from North America and Protestants claim that her visions are heresy without considering the imperative intuitions they might gain from her religious history. In essence, the evaluation of Guadalupe provides a significant connectivity to Christian belief, cultural direction and pagan religion of native people.
Although people may be tempted to align to the Evangelical opinions regarding Guadalupe, it is critical that they remain wary of the various...